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The Mysterious Mother

Horace Walpole (1717-1797). The Mysterious Mother: a tragedy by the Hon. Horace Walpole (Late Lord Orford); with the Author’s Postscript. London : Printed by A. Macpherson, Russell Court, for Ann Lemoine, White-Rose Court, Coleman Street, and J. Roe, No. 90, Houndsditch, [1802]. Call number: TC023, box 163. ❧ Only other copies recorded are those at the National Library of Wales. ❧ Provenance: ThX copy has the autograph signature of E. Nason–possibly Edwin F. Nason–a New York publisher in the latter half of the 19th century. Nason identifies this copy on the t.p. as ”rare,” one that he ”ordered from London 1860.” At the bottom of the t.p., Nason notes: ”this the only copy I have seen in this country.” The latter note, in addition to an internal note about the writing of The Mysterious Mother, are both signed ”E.N.” ❧ Internal notations in ink and pencil signal that this book was accessioned by a library in 1892 and had come from Samuel Putnam Avery. This evidence plus the genre of the publication suggest that this book was once part of the Brander Matthews Dramatic Museum, dispersed by the Columbia University Library, and from which Princeton received parts in 1971. ❧ (This impartment from rare book cataloger Scott Carlisle.)